Saturday, 21 September 2013

Uniko – Electric dreaming at the Barbican

The Kronos Quartet
with Kimmo Pohjonen and
Samuli Kosminen were in electric form last night (18 September) at
the Barbican. It is always
a treat to hear Kronos, they are happy to experiment and yet approach
every new idea or technique with certainty and aplomb which makes you
feel that music should have always been played that way.
Compositional ideas which could come unstuck with lesser musicians
become powerful, lyrical, or ironic.

Over the last 40 years the Kronos Quartet (David Harrington
(violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang
(cello)) have championed new music, from classical to jazz and rock,
commissioning over 800 pieces themselves. Uniko is one such
collaboration. Premiered in 2004 in Helsinki, it was commissioned
back in 2002 and composed during the following 18 months. Kosminen
sampled both the quartet and Pohjonen, producing sound fragments
which were reassembled and looped, transforming their very nature and
providing a preternatural depth of sound. A recording of Uniko
was released in 2011. This performance was the UK premiere – and it
didn’t disappoint.

The seven movements performed, Utu, Liuos, Plasma,
Särmä, Kalma, Kamala, and Emo (which
after a quick run through a translation programme are Mist, Solution,
Plasma, Edge, Death, Horrible, and Mother), are thematically and
conceptually related as part of a dreamscape. A swirling mass of
played and sampled sounds – so much so that without watching it is
sometimes hard to tell what is live and what is sampled - envelop the
listener in surround sound, while a light show with dry ice, and a
slide show with oil on water and fractal patterns churn dizzyingly
behind the performers.

On stage the quartet was flanked by the Finns, with the sound
engineer off to one side. Pohjonen is renowned for his world music
and was an impassioned sight; managing to juggle playing his
accordion with growly formless singing, at the same time as
controlling the many sound altering pedals at his feet. In contrast
Kosminen was cool and spare with his movements. Nevertheless he
expertly commanded the pre-recorded segments and samples, and what
appeared to be live looping, whilst also being the percussionist.

From the start electric sounds mixed against the rushing wind
sound of air being blown across the body of the instruments, building
up into a dreamy, drifting, folk tune. The music floated though a
minimalist falling theme into a strong dance tune, at which point you
are hit with the surround sound and light show. Recurring themes
provided a ‘home’ and a starting point for exploration for each
new movement. Pauses in the visual display were dramatically timed
with the mood of the music.

Since the movements drifted into each other, the audience took any
pause it could to applaud and show its approval, such as the pauses
before Särmä and Kalma. The group retuned for an
encore -possibly Avara (meaning wide or spacious) but it was
hard to keep track. Even after the performers had left the stage,
synthesised repeats serenaded the audience out of the concert hall.

I first heard Uniko on BBC Radio 3 and immediately
downloaded the album. This live performance was more emotionally
charged than the recording, largely due to the mesmerising on stage
presence of Pohjonen and his singing, which was at times meditational
and at other times agonised. Improvisational elements varied in
detail from the recording as you would expect, however the sound
quality and depth was as polished and cinematically produced as the
recording. I loved the light show, but, despite having looked forward
to them, was not as keen on the videos as some of them reminded me of
screensavers. Perhaps a little explanation of them from the designer
would have helped.

review by Hilary Glover

Elsewhere on this blog:

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Quickening:

Songs by Robert Hugill to texts by English and Welsh poets now available from Amazon

four delicate, sensitive settings of Ivor Gurney, drawing performances of like quality. - it is Rosalind Ventris’s viola, weaving its way around and between the voice and William Vann’s piano, that is most beguilingGramphone magazine Jan 2018